May 11, 2012

National Lawyers Guild International Committee Condemns Egyptian Military Violation of Human Rights

The National Lawyers Guild International Committee joins fifteen Egyptian human rights organizations in condemning violence and other political repression committed, and/or acquiesced to, by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) against civilians and activists, including recent attacks on protesters in Abbasiya Square, near the Ministry of Defense.

...Continued from home page

[FN: Abbasiya Events a Continuation of SCAF’s Systematic Violations of Human Rights in the Transitional Period, 7 May 2012]

As noted in the above statement, since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak, "hundreds have been killed and thousands injured and detained" by SCAF. Human Rights Watch and other international agencies have made similar findings. Since April 28 alone, dozens of civilians have been killed or injured during attacks on the mass sit-in at Abbasiya Square; hundreds more have been summarily tried and detained by military courts.

As a U.S.-based non-governmental organization, we are particularly concerned that, as during the Mubarak era, Egyptians demanding democracy are being killed, maimed and jailed at the hands of $1.5 billion in lethal tear gas, bullets and other weapons provided by our own government to the Egyptian military.

To examine such complicity, the NLG IC recently coordinated a fact-finding delegation of attorneys, academics and activists to Egypt; their report is forthcoming. Meanwhile, we endorse demands by the above organizations for respect of both Egyptian and international human rights law. We also call on the U.S. government to immediately stop providing the Egyptian military with the money and weapons used to violate such law.